After the Falcons’ loss to the Saints on Thursday night, there are still five undefeated teams. Based on this week’s matchups, there is a good chance that all or most of them will remain undefeated. The Panthers (4-0) face the toughest challenge, playing the Seahawks in Seattle.

Patriots (4-0) at Colts (3-2) – 8:30 p.m.

Line:Patriots by 8

In a news conference this week, Tom Brady had on his predictable knit cap and was giving predictable answers to predictable questions involving his motivations, or lack thereof, when facing the team that was at the center of last season’s deflated-ball saga. Finally, one reporter interrupted the monotony, asking Brady: “Isn’t there any heart in there? Any human that wants a little extra?”

But consider the facts. Brady is 38, an age when most quarterbacks have already retired. His skills have not seemed to diminish at any point in his Hall of Fame-caliber career and he is off to an undefeated start with 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In Week 5, he was sacked five times, all in the first half, and then coolly led his team to a blowout victory, looking no worse for the wear after taking all the punishment the Dallas defense could muster.

It all begins to make sense when you read that researchers from Georgia Tech announced this week that they had identified a way to teach robots to fall with grace and without serious damage.

“From previous work, we knew a robot had the computational know-how to achieve a softer landing, but it didn’t have the hardware to move quickly enough like a cat,” Prof. Karen Liu said when announcing the study Tuesday. “Our new planning algorithm takes into account the hardware constraints and the capabilities of the robot, and suggests a sequence of contacts so the robot gradually can slow itself down.”

It makes a lot more sense to think of Brady as a robot slowly being perfected by its creators than a sixth-round pick who could barely hold on to a starting job in college and went on to win four Super Bowls and throw more than 400 touchdown passes.

It is unclear if Andrew Luck or Matt Hasselbeck will start at quarterback for the Colts, but it hardly seems to matter. Brady is motivated, or at least programmed, for extra effort, and the Colts are in trouble.

Pick: Patriots

Panthers (4-0) at Seahawks (2-3) – 4:05 p.m.

Line:Seahawks by 8

The Seahawks were well on their way to a third consecutive win last week when Andy Dalton of the Bengals pulled off an incredible fourth-quarter comeback, erasing a 17-point deficit before beating Seattle in overtime. It was enough to make the “Kam Chancellor is back so all is well” narrative ring a bit hollow. Things will not get any easier against the Panthers, a team that runs the ball well, limits opposing runners and boasts a league-leading plus-8 turnover differential.

Running back Marshawn Lynch will return this week, but the Seahawks were in good hands with the rookie Thomas Rawls. Both will be needed against a Panthers defense that allows just 92 yards a game on the ground, sixth in the N.F.L.

The Seahawks are nearly unbeatable at home, winning 28 of their last 30 in Seattle, and are talented enough to fend off the rapidly improving Panthers. But an 8-point spread seems insulting to Carolina.

Pick: Seahawks

Cardinals (4-1) at Steelers (3-2) – 1 p.m.

Line:Cardinals by 3

The Steelers have so little faith in Michael Vick as a quarterback that last week, as time was expiring, they executed a direct snap to running back Le’Veon Bell, who took the ball into the end zone for the winning touchdown against the Chargers. Vick, who has failed to move the ball with anywhere near the consistency of the injured Ben Roethlisberger, was split out as a wide receiver on the play. Even Vick’s staunchest defenders would have a hard time arguing that he is a worthy starter when he was not even under center with the game on the line.

Roethlisberger practiced during the week and has said he wants to play, but the team is expected to remain cautious. He has sat out just two games after straining a medial collateral ligament that was originally expected to keep him out for at least four weeks.

The Cardinals beat up on Detroit last week and their aging offensive stars Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald and Chris Johnson got a peer on the defensive side of the ball when the team signed linebacker Dwight Freeney, 35, to help fill the void left when Alex Okafor strained a calf muscle.

Beating Roethlisberger would be a sure sign that the Cardinals are real contenders, but beating Vick would carry considerably less cachet. Still, the Cardinals would surely take the win and worry about the cachet later.

Pick: Cardinals

Bengals (5-0) at Bills (3-2) – 1 p.m.

Line:Bengals by 3.5

The Bills are the hardest team to figure out in the N.F.L. They have looked dominant at times, and inept at others. The Bengals, meanwhile, have been an offensive juggernaut so powerful that no deficit seems out of reach.

Andy Dalton has had his share of ups and downs, but last week against Seattle he looked like one of the best quarterbacks in the N.F.L., marching his team to victory against long odds. He passed for 331 yards against the vaunted Legion of Boom secondary, and if not for a holding penalty that negated a 72-yard touchdown strike to A.J. Green, he would have broken 400.

The Bengals are probably not quite as good as they have played, and the Bills are not quite as bad as they looked in losses to the Patriots and the Giants. The winner will find itself on the short list of A.F.C. contenders.

Pick: Bills

Chargers (2-3) at Packers (5-0) – 4:25 p.m.

Line:Packers by 11.5

The first and last time the Chargers beat the Packers, the starting quarterbacks were Dan Fouts and Lynn Dickey. It was October 1984 and the game was a shootout at Lambeau Field. Dickey’s two interceptions and a 15-reception game by Kellen Winslow went a long way toward giving San Diego the win.

The Chargers’ offense will be the first real test of the season for the Packers’ defense. Green Bay is ranked seventh in the N.F.L. in fewest yards allowed, but it has yet to face a team with San Diego’s ability to move the ball. That said, there is little reason for the Packers to be concerned. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers is prone to turnovers and Green Bay’s defense is opportunistic enough to take advantage.

Getting a second win in Green Bay may take another 30 years for San Diego.

Pick: Packers

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Continued

A great trick play that pays off can demoralize the opposition and provide enjoyable memories for years to come. Think of Dan Marino yelling, “Clock,” to delude the Jets into thinking he would spike the ball or the Bills sneaking a defensive lineman onto the field to catch a touchdown on a fake field goal attempt.

But trick plays can also go wrong. And when they go as badly wrong as whatever the Colts were trying Sunday night, they bring not admiration, but scorn, mockery and just plain laughter.

With 1 minute 14 seconds left in the third quarter, and trailing the Super Bowl champion Patriots by 27-21 and still very much in the game, the Colts had a fourth-and-3 at their own 37.

The New York Times’s Fourth Down Bot advised the aggressive strategy of going for it. But the Colts decided to punt … or so it seemed.

Punter Pat McAfee came out on the field, but suddenly he and eight other players shifted to the far right side. That left only two Colts players over the ball: Griff Whalen at center and Colt Anderson at quarterback.

It might be worth mentioning at this point that Whalen is a wide receiver and Anderson is a safety.

A number of Patriots shifted, too, but at least three or four remained in the vicinity of the ball. Perhaps the ruse was to lure New England offside? If so, it did not succeed, as the Patriots players kept their discipline and stayed put.

So, delay of game and then punt, right?

Nope. Whalen snapped the ball.

It turns out that a single wide receiver cannot hold off several defenders for very long. Before he could do a thing, Anderson was swarmed and tackled.

The San Diego Chargers were on the brink of handing the Green Bay Packers their first regular season loss at Lambeau Field since December of 2013, but Keenan Allen was not on the field.

Allen, who was on his way to a franchise record for receptions when he went out with a hip injury earlier in the half, took much of the team’s momentum with him. If Phillip Rivers had his star receiver on the field on fourth and goal, the result might've been different.

As it was, Rivers’s last pass of the game was batted to the ground and the Packers escaped with a 27-20 victory.

Allen was in the middle of an incredible performance at the time of his injury. The third-year wide receiver had already reached 14 catches and 157 yards midway through the third quarter, and his team had fought back from a 17-3 deficit to tie the game. But on his 14th catch, he was slow to get up. He pointed at his hip when a trainer checked on him, and walked under his own power into the locker room for evaluation.

Allen returned to the game shortly after, but eventually was ruled out for the remainder of the game with what the team characterized as a hip injury.

To that point, Green Bay had no solution for Allen, who surpassed 12 receptions in a game for the third time this season. His 53 receptions lead the N.F.L.

As San Diego struggled to make things work without Allen, Aaron Rodgers was able to get things back on track, throwing a go-ahead touchdown pass to the resurgent James Jones in the closing moments of the third quarter. It was the sixth touchdown catch of the season for Jones, who was cut at the end of the preseason by the Giants.

The Packers’ early lead was the result of an incredible start to the game by James Starks. The team's backup running back scored two first quarter touchdowns and finished the day with 112 yards on the ground.

With the win, the Packers joined the Panthers, Bengals and Broncos as undefeated teams through Week 6. The Patriots have a chance to join the group as well when they play the Indianapolis Colts tonight.

Photo

San Diego's Keenan Allen had 14 receptions before being injured in the second half.Credit
Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press

Allen was in pursuit of sole possession of the franchise record for receptions in a game. He currently shares the record of 15 with Kellen Winslow, who in a strange coincidence set the mark in a 1984 game between the Chargers and Packers. Winslow had 15 catches for 157 yards in the 34-28 Chargers win, which was the first, and last, time San Diego beat Green Bay.

Even without Allen for much of the second half, Philip Rivers set franchise records with 43 attempts for 65 completions and 503 passing yards. It was the 16th game since 1960 in which a quarterback surpassed 500 passing yards. But in the end Rivers fell three yards short of victory.

The New England Patriots took care of business in their revenge game against the Indianapolis Colts, winning the rematch of last season’s A.F.C. championship, 34-27.

While the win was convincing, it involved a rare error by Patriots receiver Julian Edelman and an even more rare interception by Tom Brady that helped the Colts take a 21-20 halftime lead.

The critical play came on a second down with with 11:30 left in the second quarter and the Patriots on their own 10, leading the Colts 10-7. Brady’s pass hit Edelman in the hands, but the normally dependable receiver juggled the ball, knocking it into the air, and Mike Adams picked it out of the air, easily jogging into the end zone for the score. It was Brady's first interception of the season.

Even with the win, the Patriots have to be concerned about Edelman, who juggled or dropped several passes after injuring a finger on his right hand earlier in the game. After a catch in traffic, cameras caught Edelman showing a teammate the injured finger following the play. He taped it up and remained in the game.

Edelman started the game strong, but fell off after the injury, finishing the day with 6 catches for 50 yards and a touchdown.

Much was made of Brady’s motivation coming into the game, considering the fact that the Colts had reported the underinflated balls to officials which started the scandal which came to be known by many as Deflategate. For his part in the scandal, Brady was initially given a four-game suspension by Roger Goodell, but a federal judge vacated the decision and allowed him to play even after the N.F.L. announced that it would appeal the decision.

If the suspension had gone through, this would have been Brady's first game of the season. Instead he has led the Patriots to a 5-0 start, establishing himself as an early contender for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

The final score did not accurately reflect how much New England dominated the second half. The stands were nearly empty as time expired, with Brady having completed 23 of 37 passes for 311 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.

A week after Andy Dalton exposed flaws in the Seattle Seahawks’ pass defense, the Legion of Boom spent the first half reminding the world what it is capable of by shutting down Cam Newton and the undefeated Carolina Panthers.

The second half was a different story. Newton and the Panthers charged back to take a lead with just 32 seconds remaining, holding on to win 27-23.

In a tightly-contested first half, with tensions high on both sides, the Seahawks’ secondary appeared impenetrable, with Newton completing just 4 of 12 passes for 46 yards. A first-quarter interception by Earl Thomas helped set up a field goal that gave Seattle its first lead.

It was more of the same at the beginning of the second half, with Kam Chancellor also intercepting a pass, but the Panthers regrouped and reeled off three consecutive 80-yard touchdown drives at the end of the game to overtake Seattle. Jonathan Stewart finished off two of the drives with 1-yard touchdown runs and Newton threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Greg Olsen to give Carolina the lead.

A primary reason for Carolina’s undefeated start to the season has been the efficiency of Newton, but playing in the hostile environment of CenturyLink Field was a lot to ask of any quarterback. In his career, Newton had been 0-3 against the Seahawks, with just 437 yards and 1 touchdown in three starts.

After the rough start today, Newton finished the game 20 of 36 for 269 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.

The loss by Seattle, which dropped the two-time defending N.F.C. champions to 2-4, wasted a strong effort by Jimmy Graham. The star tight end, acquired in an offseason trade, has had a somewhat disappointing start to his season but finished today's game with season highs of 8 receptions for 140 yards.

—
Benjamin Hoffman

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Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant caught an 8-yard pass from Landry Jones for a touchdown in the second half against the Cardinals.Credit
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not get Ben Roethlisberger back this week, but the team’s struggling offense finally came to life when Landry Jones entered the game in place of the injured Michael Vick. The third-string quarterback led the Steelers to 25-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Jones, a four-year starter at Oklahoma, had never thrown an N.F.L. pass when he came on in relief of Vick, who had injured his hamstring. His second pass of the game went for an 8-yard touchdown to Martavis Bryant and the Steelers would go on to score in the first four possessions with Jones under center.

“Landry’s been watching Ben for a long time,” said Le’Veon Bell, the star Steelers running back, told reporters after the game. “He knows the offense like the back of his hand.”

In his post-game news conference, Coach Mike Tomlin cited Jones's extensive work in preseason games as a reason he was able to step so easily into the team's offense. He said Jones has continued to work hard despite his place on the depth chart.

"You don’t always have control over the opportunity," Tomlin said. "But when given the opportunity, you need to be prepared. I give him credit for that, he was prepared."

While insisting that he had maintained his confidence and familiarity with the system despite a lack of playing time, Jones, in his post-game news conference, seemed just as surprised by the immediate success as everyone else.

"I just still can’t believe I got in the game and to play," Jones said. "I’m still kind of reeling from it."

The swing in momentum seemed to validate the criticism Vick has endured in recent weeks.

Starting his third consecutive game in place of the injured Ben Roethlisberger, Vick’s tenure has been met with a great deal of frustration, especially from star wide receiver Antonio Brown who saw his production drop off dramatically.

After a win on Monday night, Brown said he should be getting the ball more often, and that Vick’s conservative approach while Roethlisberger recovers from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee is not working.

“I think he wants to get me the ball, he’s trying to get me the ball. It’s just he’s new out there,” Brown told reporters. “I think Mike Vick looks over and sees me doubled and says ‘ooh, I can’t go there.’”

With Roethlisberger, Brown was one of the most productive and consistent wide receivers in the N.F.L., but in two starts with Vick under center, he had a combined 8 catches for 87 yards.

This week got off to an even worse start, with Vick targeting Brown three times, completing one pass for minus-1 yard. It did not help that Brown was being shadowed by Patrick Peterson, one of the game's best cornerbacks, but Brown showed his frustration throughout the game, regularly throwing his arms up and staring in Vick’s direction at the conclusion of a play.

Vick, who had been removed from the game earlier in the day to go through testing for a concussion, injured his hamstring on a third quarter running play and did not return. Prior to the injury he had completed 3 of 8 passes for 6 yards and rushed for 47 yards.

In Vick’s place, Jones was a revelation, forming an immediate bond with Bryant. Jones finished the day having completed 8 of 12 passes for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns. Bryant, in his first game of the season following a four-game suspension for a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy, had 6 catches for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. Brown finished the day with 3 catches for 24 yards.

“It’s been a long road since my days in Oklahoma,” Jones told reporters. “Just very blessed and thankful to get in there.”

Roethlisberger has shown good progress in the rehabilitation of his injured knee, but his status for Week 7 is unclear. Considering how effectively the Steelers moved the ball with Jones against a high-caliber Arizona defense, Tomlin will undoubtedly endure a week of questions about whether or not Vick will get another chance at quarterback.

Tomlin was asked directly after the game if he had found himself a new starting quarterback but he declined to anoint Jones as the interim solution until Roethlisberger can return.

"You know, we have some options here," Tomlin said. "We’ll deal with those at the appropriate time. We’re just going to enjoy the efforts of all parties involved right now."

—
Benjamin Hoffman

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“I’d like to see them put 60 points on the board, and love to see Tom throw for 500 yards and eight touchdowns.”

TOM BRADY SR., the father of the Patriots quarterback, discussing his best-case scenario for tonight's game against the Indianapolis Colts, the team that alerted officials to underinflated balls being used in the A.F.C. championship, which led to an offseason of strife for the Patriots.

Ryan Fitzpatrick does, in fact, know how to slide with his feet. He just does not like to. Nor, as he readily admits, is he particularly good at it.

So on plays, designed or improvised, that demand his running expertise, Fitzpatrick tucks the ball into his armpit, lowers his shoulder and girds himself for contact. The way he dives headfirst, it sort of looks as if he is trying to knock down a door at knee level.

On the Jets’ second series after halftime Sunday in their 34-20 victory against the Washington Redskins at MetLife Stadium, Fitzpatrick blasted through that door. He escaped pressure from the backside. He slipped out of the pocket. He shimmed past a Washington defender and – ball tucked, shoulder lowered, bracing for a hit – scooted toward the end zone. He landed on his stomach, but when he got up, he flung the ball high into the air.

Fitzpatrick’s 18-yard touchdown scramble jolted the Jets after a sluggish first half, and it catalyzed a dominant second-half performance that they would love to replicate next week, when they play at New England for first place in the A.F.C. East.

Coach Todd Bowles likes to view the season as a 16-round fight. However much the Jets respected Washington – which, mind you, led by 13-10 at halftime – their victory Sunday represented the undercard to a game that, as it so often does with them, will shape their credibility as contenders.

It will be Bowles’s first foray into the rivalry with the Patriots, and though he does not have Bill Belichick’s championships, in his rookie season with the Jets he has already proved astute at one of a coach’s primary game-day functions, making halftime adjustments.

Through five games, the Jets have outscored opponents by 58-21 in the second half, including by 34-0 in the third quarter. On their first four possessions after halftime Sunday, the Jets scored a field goal and three touchdowns, turning interceptions from Darrelle Revis and Marcus Gilchrist into 14 of those 24 points.

After enduring eight consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos finally ended their streak of futility with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders. A field goal in overtime gave the Broncos a 26-23 win over the Cleveland Browns, keeping the team undefeated at 6-0.

The touchdown had to come as a relief for the Broncos, who despite the undefeated start had endured a great deal of criticism as the team’s offense was struggling to live up to its championship-caliber defense.

Between the start of the fourth quarter of the Broncos’ Week 4 win over the Vikings and ending with Sanders’s touchdown, the Broncos offensive possessions ended in seven field goals, eleven punts and five interceptions.

“The sad thing is we do some good stuff and we don’t finish anything,” coach Gary Kubiak told reporters after the Broncos’ 16-10 win over Oakland last week. “That’s what’s disappointing.”

Even with the score, and the sixth consecutive win, Manning is likely to deal with plenty of harsh questions when the team returns from its bye week week, as he has thrown seven interceptions over his last three games. It will not get any easier with the Broncos hosting Aaron Rodgers and the undefeated Green Bay Packers in Denver.

A week after being benched in the third quarter following three interceptions, Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions exploded for four touchdown passes in a 37-34 overtime win over the Chicago Bears that gave Detroit its first win of the season.

After benching Stafford last week, Coach Jim Caldwell insisted there was no quarterback controversy and Stafford, a Pro Bowler in 2014, seemed unfazed by the move.

“It’s over with,” Stafford told reporters this week. “We move on.”

Whether it was the motivation of being benched — or the Chicago Bears’ defense not being as good as advertised — is hard to tell. But Stafford moved on by throwing four touchdown passes to four different receivers in regulation.

After Stafford’s fourth touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter gave Detroit a three-point lead, Robbie Gould of the Bears made a field goal to send the game to overtime.

The teams each punted twice in the extra period before Stafford led a 77-yard drive, which included an incredible 57-yard catch by Johnson to set up a game-winning field goal by Matt Prater.

Stafford finished the day having completed 27 of 42 passes for 405 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.

Cameron Wake waited until Week 6 to get his first sack of the season, but the standout defensive end for the Miami Dolphins made up for lost time today, sacking Marcus Mariota four times in the first half, forcing two fumbles, and helping lead his team to a 38-10 win over the Tennessee Titans.

Wake, who had 63 career sacks entering the game, has been one of the many underperforming players on Miami’s defense. That unit was expected to be much-improved with the addition of Ndamukong Suh this season. Despite starting the team’s first four games, Wake had yet to record a single solo tackle before his dominant half against the Titans.

As a result of the pressure created by Wake and the Miami defense, Mariota, who was sacked six times, struggled to get into a rhythm, completing 21 of 33 passes for 219 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Mariota appeared to be injured after consecutive hits by Wake and Olivier Vernon in the second quarter, but he remained in the game until he was removed for Zach Mettenberger in the fourth quarter with the score well out of hand.

Julio Jones had an important meeting to get to. But instead of dressing up for it, he stripped down.

With his Falcons teammates still in uniform, Jones wore a sleeveless black workout shirt as he prowled the sideline late in the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s rout of the Houston Texans on Oct. 4. When the game ended, Jones snaked through the throng on the field until he spotted Texans running back Arian Foster, who jogged over to share a quick embrace — and to conduct their business.

As they had discussed before the game, Jones handed Foster his jersey, and Foster gave Jones his. Clutching their new souvenirs, they posed for a photo.

A custom associated more with fútbol than football, jersey swapping has become as much a part of the N.F.L. postgame ritual as handshakes and prayer circles. Players consider the transaction, freighted with personal meaning, the ultimate show of respect.

“You watch any of the gladiator or Spartan movies, on the field of battle is their helmet or whatever they were wearing — they won or lost in it,” Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. said. “The jerseys are kind of like our armor. It’s something to be remembered forever.”

Some players, eager to add to their collections, plot out exchanges weeks in advance, staking their claim through text messages. Others let the spirit of the day guide them. After the Jets lost to New England at home last season, right tackle Breno Giacomini greeted his adversary that day, Patriots defensive lineman Alan Branch, who told him: “You held me long enough. You might as well take it.”

Giacomini laughed and helped Branch remove his jersey and shoulder pads. Branch then did the same for him.

“I wish I started doing this when I was a rookie,” Giacomini said.

In soccer, the practice dates back more than 80 years, to 1931, when France beat England for the first time. Overjoyed, the French players asked the English if they minded giving them their jerseys as mementos.

It is unclear when the phenomenon crossed over to the N.F.L., but Jets receiver Brandon Marshall said that he had been exchanging jerseys since 2007, his second year in the league. “If coaches had jerseys,” Marshall said, “I’d ask for theirs, too.”

After the Falcons’ loss to the Saints on Thursday night, there are still five undefeated teams. Based on this week’s matchups, there is a good chance that all or most of them will remain undefeated. The Panthers (4-0) face the toughest challenge, playing the Seahawks in Seattle.

Patriots (4-0) at Colts (3-2) – 8:30 p.m.

Line:Patriots by 8

In a news conference this week, Tom Brady had on his predictable knit cap and was giving predictable answers to predictable questions involving his motivations, or lack thereof, when facing the team that was at the center of last season’s deflated-ball saga. Finally, one reporter interrupted the monotony, asking Brady: “Isn’t there any heart in there? Any human that wants a little extra?”

But consider the facts. Brady is 38, an age when most quarterbacks have already retired. His skills have not seemed to diminish at any point in his Hall of Fame-caliber career and he is off to an undefeated start with 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In Week 5, he was sacked five times, all in the first half, and then coolly led his team to a blowout victory, looking no worse for the wear after taking all the punishment the Dallas defense could muster.

It all begins to make sense when you read that researchers from Georgia Tech announced this week that they had identified a way to teach robots to fall with grace and without serious damage.

“From previous work, we knew a robot had the computational know-how to achieve a softer landing, but it didn’t have the hardware to move quickly enough like a cat,” Prof. Karen Liu said when announcing the study Tuesday. “Our new planning algorithm takes into account the hardware constraints and the capabilities of the robot, and suggests a sequence of contacts so the robot gradually can slow itself down.”

It makes a lot more sense to think of Brady as a robot slowly being perfected by its creators than a sixth-round pick who could barely hold on to a starting job in college and went on to win four Super Bowls and throw more than 400 touchdown passes.

It is unclear if Andrew Luck or Matt Hasselbeck will start at quarterback for the Colts, but it hardly seems to matter. Brady is motivated, or at least programmed, for extra effort, and the Colts are in trouble.

Pick: Patriots

Panthers (4-0) at Seahawks (2-3) – 4:05 p.m.

Line:Seahawks by 8

The Seahawks were well on their way to a third consecutive win last week when Andy Dalton of the Bengals pulled off an incredible fourth-quarter comeback, erasing a 17-point deficit before beating Seattle in overtime. It was enough to make the “Kam Chancellor is back so all is well” narrative ring a bit hollow. Things will not get any easier against the Panthers, a team that runs the ball well, limits opposing runners and boasts a league-leading plus-8 turnover differential.

Running back Marshawn Lynch will return this week, but the Seahawks were in good hands with the rookie Thomas Rawls. Both will be needed against a Panthers defense that allows just 92 yards a game on the ground, sixth in the N.F.L.

The Seahawks are nearly unbeatable at home, winning 28 of their last 30 in Seattle, and are talented enough to fend off the rapidly improving Panthers. But an 8-point spread seems insulting to Carolina.

Pick: Seahawks

Cardinals (4-1) at Steelers (3-2) – 1 p.m.

Line:Cardinals by 3

The Steelers have so little faith in Michael Vick as a quarterback that last week, as time was expiring, they executed a direct snap to running back Le’Veon Bell, who took the ball into the end zone for the winning touchdown against the Chargers. Vick, who has failed to move the ball with anywhere near the consistency of the injured Ben Roethlisberger, was split out as a wide receiver on the play. Even Vick’s staunchest defenders would have a hard time arguing that he is a worthy starter when he was not even under center with the game on the line.

Roethlisberger practiced during the week and has said he wants to play, but the team is expected to remain cautious. He has sat out just two games after straining a medial collateral ligament that was originally expected to keep him out for at least four weeks.

The Cardinals beat up on Detroit last week and their aging offensive stars Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald and Chris Johnson got a peer on the defensive side of the ball when the team signed linebacker Dwight Freeney, 35, to help fill the void left when Alex Okafor strained a calf muscle.

Beating Roethlisberger would be a sure sign that the Cardinals are real contenders, but beating Vick would carry considerably less cachet. Still, the Cardinals would surely take the win and worry about the cachet later.

Pick: Cardinals

Bengals (5-0) at Bills (3-2) – 1 p.m.

Line:Bengals by 3.5

The Bills are the hardest team to figure out in the N.F.L. They have looked dominant at times, and inept at others. The Bengals, meanwhile, have been an offensive juggernaut so powerful that no deficit seems out of reach.

Andy Dalton has had his share of ups and downs, but last week against Seattle he looked like one of the best quarterbacks in the N.F.L., marching his team to victory against long odds. He passed for 331 yards against the vaunted Legion of Boom secondary, and if not for a holding penalty that negated a 72-yard touchdown strike to A.J. Green, he would have broken 400.

The Bengals are probably not quite as good as they have played, and the Bills are not quite as bad as they looked in losses to the Patriots and the Giants. The winner will find itself on the short list of A.F.C. contenders.

Pick: Bills

Chargers (2-3) at Packers (5-0) – 4:25 p.m.

Line:Packers by 11.5

The first and last time the Chargers beat the Packers, the starting quarterbacks were Dan Fouts and Lynn Dickey. It was October 1984 and the game was a shootout at Lambeau Field. Dickey’s two interceptions and a 15-reception game by Kellen Winslow went a long way toward giving San Diego the win.

The Chargers’ offense will be the first real test of the season for the Packers’ defense. Green Bay is ranked seventh in the N.F.L. in fewest yards allowed, but it has yet to face a team with San Diego’s ability to move the ball. That said, there is little reason for the Packers to be concerned. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers is prone to turnovers and Green Bay’s defense is opportunistic enough to take advantage.

Getting a second win in Green Bay may take another 30 years for San Diego.

Pick: Packers

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